For anyone wondering if they should breed from their dog......

B

bunter

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I know you've probably all heard this before many a time, but there are so many dogs in rescues they are bursting at the seams. I am a volunteer foster carer for a rescue that takes dogs from the pounds when their time is up. Many pounds put to sleep if the dog hasn't been claimed within 7 days. We are now also finding breeders can't sell their dogs so they come into rescue too wherever possible.

This is a poundie that we were unable to save today - we just have no room despite cramming as many in as possible
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He is just one of many thousands that are lost every year for no reason other than there is no room for them...... Please think before adding to the problem.

Thanks
 
They have to keep the dogs in the toilet at our local rescue, they've run out of runs.

I have to go through council minutes every week - out of 19 picked up by the pound in October, only two survived.
 
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We also had to turn away 2 young mastiffs yesterday
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they where pts
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Are you finding the same as we do - that the smaller ones are easier to rehome. Bigger dogs, especially staffies and rotties (and their crosses) are more difficult. I helped transport and briefly fostered 'The Last Labrador'. So called as she was the last breeding bitch from a puppy farm. She was absolutely gorgeous (chocolate) but had never seen life outside a shed before. Labs were no longer economically viable, so he was giving them up for 'handbag dogs'.

Dogs have become fashion accessories. For the 'macho' idiots it was GSDs, then Rotties and then Staffies, so they were all overbred. Now no-one wants them so people like you and me try to pick up the pieces from the fallout.
 
yep, we have alot of big breeds, that ae sticking and the little ones are going pretty quick
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it's getting to the point of no retutn now, we have rarely had to turn anything away, but there is only so much that can be done when rescue and foster homes are packed to the brim
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I have to agree, I would have loved to have bred my boy but I can't bear the thought of any of his babies ending up in a pound.... as much as you can promise to take back a dog you've bred, you can never guarantee that the puppy owner will come back to you. I saw two cracking dogs this weekend, a rottei/gsd and a dobe/gsd and they were beautiful loving friendly dogs but if they were in a rescue centre, I'm sure they wouldn't get a second look.

You all do such good work and i wish there was something I could do to help... do rescues use interim foster homes, I would happily take in temporary dogs whilst they were waiting for homes, perhaps ones who can't cope with kennels?
 
The rescue I was talking about ^^^^ have a GSD/rott called Jack who has been there for about five years, no one will take him.

He is the sweetest guy, I have walked him a few times but the poor lad is stir crazy...obsessed by reflective surfaces etc.
 
I can totally understand your statement, rescue centres are heaving & I'm sure coming up to after xmas it's gonna get a lot worse. It's so sad for these animals to just be abandoned, they don't understand what's happening but....

I don't necessarily agree that people shouldn't breed, reputable, decent breeders usually have homes for their puppies before they are even born, a lot of breeders I know have a waiting list, these aren't breeders that are pumping out puppies every month and these are breeders that will take back their puppies if new owners circumstances change.

I do however think that if you're a first time breeder then you need to seriously think about what you are doing as you don't have the reputation of established breeders and where your puppies end up has to be the important factor, a breeders job doesn't stop once that puppy is sold, well a decent breeder anyway.

It's not always easy to take a rescue dog in either. Sometimes these dogs can't be placed with children/other dogs/cats/can't be left alone, it's not their fault I know but I just wanted to put both sides across.
 
Having been in a rehoming centre last weekend (one of the very big ones) I was shocked to find that 99% of the dogs come in from Ireland. Nothing wrong in helping dogs from Ireland but why aren't they taking them from council pounds in this country?

A sad post Bunter. Lovely dog.
 
Because we are the worst in the British Isles for destruction of dogs, there are perhaps only two 'big' shelters (in NI anyway) with only one of those being no-kill and the rest are small, local or even voluntary and they are bursting at the seams.
 
We breed one particular breed and have waiting lists for our puppies.

However, we have found out this litter that a waiting list doesn’t necessarily mean the puppies will all have homes.

Several on our waiting list have changed their minds about having a puppy as they are worried about the current financial climate. Very sensible on their part, and I am pleased they thought long and hard about having a large breed dog and the financial implications, but it means we are left with puppies unsold. We have never been in this situation before. The pups are only just 9 weeks old so its not too bad yet, but ideally they need to be living with their new families in the next couple of weeks.

We won’t be breeding again and have our bitch booked in to be spayed in a few weeks time. We won’t be allowing our dog to be used for stud either as we don’t want any more pups being born in this financial climate. I know the bitch owners will probably go elsewhere but at least I won’t have the worry of helping find homes for the progeny of our stud.

We have always offered to take back our pups if the owners can no longer care for them and have only had 2 back out of 42 pups. We have also had a couple of the same breed not bred by us in to rehome and we expect more phonecalls in the coming weeks and months asking us to take dogs bred by us back and maybe others too. I do know that one owner of one of our previous litters is struggling so we will probably be having her back in a couple of weeks time, although if our current litter of pups don’t go soon we will be struggling for space and may not be able to take her L
 
I can understand why people like Cala, that couldn't take two dogs that she knew was heading for their last trip, could think something like "Why can't people just stop breeding!" I'm not saying that she did, but I know that's one of the things I would think in her situation.
However I also think the whole thing is more complex.

For example more and more people these days seems to be impatient, and more and more seems to have a purchase today and throw away tomorrow attitude.
ETS And as MrsElle is talking about, there's also the current financial climate, to think about. /ets
I don't think it would benefit dog-world in the long run, if all responsible dog breeders stopped breeding, but I think even they should think about the number of litters they produce.
And I also have some thoughts about breeding from lines known for producing big litters, but there's arguments for and against that to.


from Sweden.
 
Hi

The rescues are crying out for foster carers! It is so much better IMHO for dogs to go into foster before being rehomed for a few reasons:

* Much better for the dog mentally (in most cases).
* Cheaper for the rescue not to have to pay for kennels - although they will cover all expenses incurred by the foster carer.
* The dog can be given any gentle rehabilitation and / or training required.
* The dog can be properly assessed to see what type of home would be best.

I have just rehomed one of my fosters to a home with children as I knew she would be fine with them and would love to play with them. Many foster homes have cats, other dogs, children, other animals so they can be rehomed in the knowledge that they are OK in these circumstances.

If you wanted to foster, have a look in the forums on www.dogpages.org.uk and see if there is a rescue near you (or in my case 2 hours away
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). They would be happy for you to contact them and chat through things with you.
 
Hi
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I'm not suggesting that all reputable, responsible breeders should stop altogether (although see post a bit further down from a breeder), merely that those thinking of breeding from their own pets should maybe take a step back and have a long, hard think about things - that's all.

WRT to what sort of home a rescue dog can be placed in, if the dog is fostered first then it will have been assessed as to the sort of home it requires. There are so many dogs that ARE OK to be left, good with children and cats, etc. A good rescue matches the right dog to the right household.

Thanks
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I agree, it is a huge shame, but at the end of the day if rescues weren't so rediculously picky about home checks, hundreds, if not thousands more dogs would be rehomed and saved.
 
I suspect the reasoning is though, that many of those hundreds if not thousands of dogs would then be returned to the rescues in short order - if not worse - because they the homes turn out to be unsuitable. Obviously that wouldn't always be the case but we all know people who have misbehaving dogs because they don't have the time or space for them (and of course requirements differ from dog to dog) and then end up turning the dog in or even having it put down because it wrecks the house or acts in some other undesirable manner. The fact is people are full of good intentions and ways to make things work but I'm sure if someone has been doing it for awhile they start to get leery of the long term viability of those plans.

I'm thinking of this right now because I'm preparing to go out for the evening and I have a still young dog with mild SA. (I've also spent about eight hours of my day on various activities involving unwell, untrained or injured horses - another time consuming pet!) I won't be long, he's had a hour+ walk (normal for him), spent the day with me at work, and has a bone to occupy him. I'm sure he'll be fine because I've been able to work on it but I know if I just left him I'd likely come home to something unpleasant. The rescue I got him from knew this might be an issue and would not have given him to us if we were both out, all day every day, leaving him alone. And rightly so. If he had gone to someone unable to give him the life HE needs I have no doubt it would have gone wrong and he'd be right back where he started.

I'm sorry if that sounds sharp but I'm in the business of dealing with "problem" horses so it's a subject near to my heart. Animals need what they need and much as people love them that's not enough, they also need so many practical - and expensive and time consuming - things and I suspect rescues get a bit paranoid about making sure, as much as they can, the dogs they rehome will get the best available. Maybe not fair in every case but I can see how they get to be inflexible.
 
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I agree, it is a huge shame, but at the end of the day if rescues weren't so rediculously picky about home checks, hundreds, if not thousands more dogs would be rehomed and saved.

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I can see both sides of this one. Some shelters will let strays go to a new home without a check, but our nearest biggest shelter has ridiculous requirements. I would rather pay for a puppy than jump through their ludicrous hoops. There is a lot to be said for making sure a rescue dog has a loving, permanent home, but there is also a lot to be said for giving a dog a home full stop.
 
<font color="green"> I think sadly a lot of people just think how cute it will be to have puppies (nice for the kids!) and just go ahead. Neighbours of ours (who are pretty clueless about dogs anyway) have a chocolate lab bitch, can't be much over a year old, who has had 12 puppies a few weeks ago. Apparently they've got homes for a few of them, no idea what will happen to the rest.

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I agree, it is a huge shame, but at the end of the day if rescues weren't so rediculously picky about home checks, hundreds, if not thousands more dogs would be rehomed and saved.

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Bit of an unfair sweeping statement there
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. I have no idea which or how many rescues you have knowledge of their homechecking procedures, but I can assure you that any I have homechecked for do not have 'tick boxes' cast in stone. Like I said before, it's about matching the right dog to the right home. Rescues have a duty of care to the dog to ensure he/she goes to the right home and does not end up either being unhappy / uncared for, or bounced back into rescue. Shipping dogs out to any home - regardless of suitability - is not useful, counter-productive and does not help save the dogs as the same problems would likely arise again.
 
It't not a sweeping statement, it is based on my experience.

I went to several rescues when looking for a dog. Every single one turned me down. Why? Let's see, there was the fact that I had a cat, my fences were only 4ft, not 6ft (even though I enquired about a toy breed?
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), I'm out of the house for longer than 2hrs per day, I have laminate flooring, the list goes on. I gave up and bought from a breeder in the end as the rescue requirements were too much.

I also know someone who lives in an ideal home for a dog, huge house, 5 bedrooms, someone is home all day, huge garden that's fully secured with 6ft fencing - they were told they couldn't rescue because they had a cat (even though the cat had lived with dogs previously, and they had owned the cat for 18yrs).

It just seems like rescues don't want to rehome dogs anymore
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It't not a sweeping statement, it is based on my experience.

I went to several rescues when looking for a dog. Every single one turned me down. Why? Let's see, there was the fact that I had a cat, my fences were only 4ft, not 6ft (even though I enquired about a toy breed?
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), I'm out of the house for longer than 2hrs per day, I have laminate flooring, the list goes on. I gave up and bought from a breeder in the end as the rescue requirements were too much.

I also know someone who lives in an ideal home for a dog, huge house, 5 bedrooms, someone is home all day, huge garden that's fully secured with 6ft fencing - they were told they couldn't rescue because they had a cat (even though the cat had lived with dogs previously, and they had owned the cat for 18yrs).

It just seems like rescues don't want to rehome dogs anymore
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It is a sweeping statement when you say rescues - full stop - won't rehome under those circumstances as it simply isn't true. Maybe the ones you have experience of, but none of the ones I have experience of. I can see each one of those issues you have listed being a problem for a particular dog, but not across the board. I have rehomed dogs to people that have similar circumstances to the ones you have listed, where the dog has been suitable, and have homechecked for many others in the same situation.

I'm sorry your experience of rescue wasn't a positive one, but please don't assume all rescues are the same
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. Of course we want to home dogs. We don't like seeing the ones in the pound being put to sleep because we don't have room
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The rescue we dealt with specialises in sighthounds and even they don't rule every dog out of every situation just because there is a cat in the house. They test the dogs and some will never be cat friendly so that's the end of that. The ones that show promise, they make the decision individually. In our case the cat was outweighed by the fact we got a young, cat friendly dog and had the time and patience to get through any initial issues. But I'm sure if we'd wanted a non-cat friendly dog they would have quite rightly said "no".

Same with gardens. We have only a small garden, not suitable for exercising a big, active dog. But we have other options to offer so again, it was all taken under advisement. I think good rescues understand not every home is perfect for every dog but it's not a cut and dried thing.

I'm sorry you've had bad experiences but as above, I'd hate to see anyone put off contacting a rescue because they assume they're not welcome. It's always worth a conversation.
 
i had always wanted to breed rotties when i had the space, time and money but now i hate the thought after watching a video of all the animals pts in shelters because of overbreeding, but a lot of people just dont care as long as they are making a quick buck, the rottie i got from kennels that take in strays had him for a while and his brother even longer. i remember when i was working in rehoming kennels the staffies and lurchers were so hard to get homes for i think in the end the kennels stopped taking in strays as it was too much pressure and they had very little support, its a huge shame, then you get rspca being over fussy with rehoming and so more animals are pts than rehomed which makes more people get a puppy because its easier than being told your unfit to have a pet from them?
 
I got a local paper today and saw many adverts for people offerring to give their dogs for free. Mostly the dogs offerred were collies and collie cross and mostly they were under 12 months old.

People wouldn't breed if there were no buyers. Buyers should think long and hard before they take on a puppy or any dog.....perhaps when we reach utopia life will be better.until then its a sad fact that no matter what there will be lots of fit healthy animals PTS..only to be replaced by the next lot of over bred puppies.

We have several dogs here.including 6 mini dachshunds which I suppose are classed as hand bag dogs. I have never re homed a dog of my own..maybe I have been fortunate? The rest of the dogs all serve a purpose. We have 2 dobermanns( supposed to be guard dogs but I wonder) and several JRTs that do an excellent job with rats. Every time I have got another dog, a lot of time and thought has gone into it beforehand..many people don't do this but I am sure that many more people do.
 
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